(SPOILERS)
Well, after watching it, I’m not a big fan of the whole “well it’s derivative” criticism. I mean, it is, it’s a sci-fi time-travel invasion movie, it’s bound to have a lot of similarities to other sci-fi invasion movies and sci-fi time travel movies, and that’s okay. There are a lot of movies that play with…

Why is anyone even doing a backflip on a LotR show? 

Yep, one of my thoughts on watching was that the original pitch probably was something relatively simple, like ‘hero gets transported forward in time to fight against aliens alongside his daughter.’ It’s simple and even relatively original.

I’m very much on Team Studio Notes a lot of the time, actually. They get all the blame when things go wrong, but 0 credit when things go right.

Not all that similar, except for a premise that’s as old as gladiatorial combat. BR’s all about high school and its social dynamics, and the Hunger Games hardly gives any of that a passing thought.

Yeah, to me the whole set of the Hunger Games movies (I’ve never read the books) are fascinating because what the movies are really about is using propaganda, marketing, and messaging.

I liked Catching Fire best because I thought the first half of the movie, all the politics, and the tour, was some of the richest storytelling in the series.

I loved the first and thought it deserved every award, thought the second was mediocre (and the 20 page infodump especially terrible writing), and the third was somewhere in between (although it did show she’d been outright lying to readers about why she was using the second person narration, which came off as pretty…

I'm not totally shocked that Shannon is the one that got the spinoff, since she's the most broad, sitcommy character. I also expect it'll be canceled after like half a season, like every time the broad, sitcommy character gets a spinoff.

Ursula’s mom will get killed by Cruella’s falling mom.

In my opinion some characters are just meant to be old, that’s how they’re conceived and being aged is essential to who they are. I don’t need to say.. let’s say Mike from Breaking Bad & Call Saul in high school. He’s a cool old guy. Or Olenna Tyrell, I don’t care how she got to be a badass matriarch, she just is.

Why don’t we just admit that this is China’s doing? Movie studios put in simple, isolated scenes that China’s censor’s can remove. Even The Mitchells vs. the Machines left the explicit reveal of the main character’s sexuality to a throwaway line in a post-credit scene that could be easily edited. It isn’t a single…

You know how you look at some movies and say “Oh that is just blatant Oscar bait”? I think that’s exactly the case for this movie, except it’s for the wardrobe department.

This must be a prequel to the live-action version.

Two things:

I never read the book but Gene Wilder was fun to watch in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Johnny Depp movie, on the other hand, was a nightmare of Johnny’s and Tim Burton’s worst unchecked tendencies. So is there some sort of untapped fandom of Willy Wonka that I’m unaware of? After seeing Hollywood mainstays…

Sure enough, he did answer the second after that clip ended. I’m sure the AVClub will be quick to update their “story” about this important moment in American political history.

if the end result is unflattering to her subjects, that typically winds up being on them

Also, in order to sell the plot, Evan has to read as believable as a high schooler. Because a high schooler doing what he does is bad but at least somewhat believable. An adult doing what he does is sociopathic. If his character reads as an adult, it cuts a lot of the audience’s sympathy for him.

I think the key point that should be taken away from this piece is that recordings of original Broadway productions should be provided to the rest of us poor souls. I hate how many amaaaaaaazing plays and musicals and oh-my-god-you-should-have-seen-its I have missed because I don’t live in or near New York, and also…